Wikimedia-l November 2005

wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org

75 participants
102 discussions

[Foundation-l] Status of Serbia and Montenegro chapter
by Milos Rancic 06 Nov '05

06 Nov '05

Here are some conclusions according to recent events (questionable reliability of Wikimedian projects) and to meeting of the part of members of Initiative for Wikimedia Serbia and Montegro: 1. As the part of Wikimedian community supports hoaxes (i.e. "Zlatiborian language") we are considered that such cases (not only related to Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian languages area) can make completely damage to relevancy of Wikimedia and her projects. 2. We completely understand that Wikimedian projects are not only WMF Board's projects, but the projects of Wikimedian community. According to that, we worry that recent events are not isolated cases, but the important rule in Wikimedian community. Because of that we understand that our involvement, as organization in the future, in Wikimedian project assumes that we support such kinds of scientific and social irresponsibilities. And we are not ready to do that. 3. Only because of the fact that our meeting was just the meeting of the part of Initiative for WM SCG, we didn't make any decision. As we would have Founding Assembly in two weeks, as our first meeting with full number of members from now, we would make decision then. 4. Decisions can be: (1) We would a "full" local chapter (i.e., like German Chapter is) with the name "Wikimedia Serbia and Montenegro" or (2) we would not be a "full" local chapter, but only a friendly organization which can behave like an Wikimedian local chapter (with different name then "Wikimedia Serbia and Montenegro").

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[Foundation-l] Wikiversity and language training
by GerardM 05 Nov '05

05 Nov '05

Hoi, On Meta we wrote an article about the teaching of languages. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Language_training_in_Wikiversity Please have a read. There are two things that are important to mention; the University of Bamberg is working on the implementation of what is written. The software will be a toolkit that can be used by people developing a curriculum or by people defining targeted exercises for specific conditions. As the University of Bamberg is in the business of teaching Italian to Germans, many if not most of the exercises will be created. When the curriculum is to be used for speakers of other languages, it will be a matter of defining the meta data about these languages and making sure that the translations for the key Italian words exist in the Ultimate Wiktionary One other key thing in computer based training is how and where and under what conditions do you store information about the educational process. When the curriculum for the learning of a language gets to the stage where many of the exercises can be handled by the computer including evaluating and reporting to a possible teacher, it will free the teacher to teach the things where a computer is at a disadvantage; stimulating the active use of a language comes to mind. There is always this argument that a good teacher cannot be replaced by material and I agree. What we can do is creating material where there is much more personalisation of the learning material to the student. When we have a broad array of texts, we can use these texts to find material that is of interest to a student. He/she still needs to learn all the basic words for a language the inflections and everything but this can be wrapped in topical texts that are of interest to the students. In Wikipedia we have LOADSA text. In Wikibooks we have even more texts and when we get a reputation, we may interest newspaper to use their current articles and in the process let students learn their product.. Thanks, GerardM

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[Foundation-l] Fwd: [Pressemeldungen] Anfrage zu Partnerschaft, Kooperation und Linktausch
by Michael Bimmler 04 Nov '05

04 Nov '05

The list it was sent to was definitely the wrong one, maybe you want to have a look at... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Christian Rieger <christian.rieger(a)dantotec.de> Date: 04.11.2005 11:28 Subject: [Pressemeldungen] Anfrage zu Partnerschaft, Kooperation und Linktausch To: pressemeldungen(a)wikimedia.org Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, hiermit möchten wir bei Ihnen anfragen, ob Sie gerne mit unserer Firma, der Dantotec GmbH (**www.dantotec.de <http://www.dantotec.de>), eine Partnerschaft bzw. Zusammenarbeit starten wollen. Wir arbeiten seit Jahren mit sehr renommierten Seiten wie Pocketnavigation, PPC-Welt, WorldofPPC, KFZ-Auskunft und vielen mehr in einer sehr angenehmen Art und Weise zusammen. Wichtig wäre uns ein Linktausch mit Ihrer Seite, denn heutzutage steht das "Suchen und Gefunden werden" im Internet an allerhöchster Stelle. Geschäftserfolge und positive Entwicklungen sind oft davon abhängig, welche Relevanz ein Interauftritt für Suchmaschinen wie Google, MSN, AOL, Yahoo, usw. hat. Deshalb suchen wir Partner im Bereich GPS, PocketPC, Palm, GPS mit PDA und Palm, GPS Systeme, GPS Entwicklung, GPS Zubehör, etc. um unsere Bekanntheit im Internet zu steigern. Im Gegenzug profitieren Sie mit einem Link Ihrer Seite bei uns mit einem gestiegenen Listing bei Suchmaschinen Zum Prozedere: Der Voragng ist sehr einfach. Wir setzen von Ihnen (Ihre Homepage) einen Link auf unsere Seite, Sie setzen im Gegenzug einen Link von uns (** www.dantotec.de <http://www.dantotec.de>) auf Ihre Seite. Sollten Sie mehrere Seiten haben, so können wir auch mehrere verschiedene Seite bei uns verlinken. Wir besitzen 34 Domains mit verschiedenem Inhalt, die sich mit dem Thema GPS und drumherum beschäftigen. Für unseren Link ist noch eine Kurzbeschreibung sinnvoll, so werden die Links von den Suchmaschinen besser indiziert: **www.dantotec.de <http://www.dantotec.de> Dantotec GmbH - Der Profishop f. mobile GPS Navigation mit Pocket PC, PDA, Palm, Navigationssoftware, GPS Empfänger kabelgebunden o. Bluetooth, Brando u. OnScreen Plus Schutzfolie, alles von Krusell, Piel Frama, Proporta, Brodit Autohalterung, gute Preise Der persönliche Kontakt zu unseren Partnern ist uns sehr wichtig, deshalb können Sie uns natürlich auch jederzeit anrufen. Für weitere Fragen stehen wir gerne zur Verfügung! Mit freundlichen Grüßen, Christian Rieger Marketing Assistant Ihr Dantotec Team Dantotec GmbH, your solution for success... Georg-Knorr-Str. 23 85662 Hohenbrunn Tel.: 08102-7776-0 Fax: 08102-7776-10 eMail: **info(a)dantotec.de Internet: **www.dantotec.de <http://www.dantotec.de> Allgemeine Geschäftsbedingungen (AGB): ** _______________________________________________ Pressemeldungen mailing list Pressemeldungen(a)wikinews.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/pressemeldungen -- An eternity is very, very long, especially towards the end

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Re: [Foundation-l] Privacy policy and editing anonymously notice.
by Chris Jenkinson 04 Nov '05

04 Nov '05

Bryan Derksen wrote: > I'm afraid I don't understand your objection. My proposed wording says > "Unless you are [[Special:Userlogin|logged in]] your edit will be signed > with your [[IP address]] when you click 'Save'," which explicitly says > your IP address _will_ be made public (signatures are public by nature) > - it's the whole point of the thing. It doesn't say one way or another > whether your IP address will be recorded if you're logged in, so that's > not factually incorrect either. I addressed that in my comment. It doesn't explicitly say it, it implicitly says it - if you take "signed" to mean publically. I have never been aware of a signature to be public. Your proposed wording also implies that your IP address will not be "signed" with your edits if you are logged in, which might be true according to your definition of a signature, but your phrasing is ambiguous and confusing. Chris

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[Foundation-l] stewards and bot flagging
by Anthere 04 Nov '05

04 Nov '05

Please see http://mail.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2005-October/032025.html Why could not bureaucrat set bot flags on their projects. They know the rules better than any steward. Would not that make sense ? Anthere __________________________________ Yahoo! FareChase: Search multiple travel sites in one click. http://farechase.yahoo.com

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[Foundation-l] Re: check user policy/Tor
by Amgine 03 Nov '05

03 Nov '05

On 11/2/05, Amgine <amgine at saewyc.net <http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l>> wrote: >> For these reasons, I would personally be in favour of blocking >> access, or at least editing, to all anonymizing services. > > I would say that more important than trying to identify each user's > IP and disallowing anonymity -- which strikes me as the wrong way > to go -- would be asking users (presumed anonymous) to verify their > goodwill and interest in the projects by working in a sandboxed > area, or submitting time-delayed changes, until they had > demonstrated a reasonable threshhold of good faith; at which point > they could vandalize and be quickly blocked, having spent much more > time getting to that point than the vandal-fighters did blocking > them. > > Anonymity serves useful purposes; we should try to preserve those > while promoting the productive development of the projects. > > To be mergist about these ideas... one could offer users both > options. 1) edit under a privacy policy which disallows anonymity, > or 2) edit anonymously, first passing through a sandbox stage to > demonstrate that you are not a bot and are acting in good faith. > > + SJ + The amount of intervention required to do as you suggest - check all time delayed entries for vandalism, create a system to over come edit conflicts which develop during the time delay (more "magic solutions"), create and implement a policy covering "reasonable threshold of good faith", managing anon user privileges who meet that threshold - would cost more than the current vandal fighting does. The point is to reduce the existing cost significantly. The proposed model allows for anonymity except when an IP is investigated for wrong doing, and would probably reduce time cost to sites by preventing anonymized IPs from editing maliciously. By implementing a system which requires monitoring, decision-making, and user privilege management you would create an onerous time task for smaller projects and likely create opportunities for conflict which are unnecessary. Amgine

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[Foundation-l] Re: check user policy/Tor
by Amgine 03 Nov '05

03 Nov '05

Anthony DiPierro wrote: > Personally I just started using Tor. So CheckUser doesn't affect me any >more. As an added bonus I don't have to worry about Google tracking me >either. Fortunately, most Tor exit nodes aren't currently blocked, though. >If this changes, this workaround might go away. Hopefully the other policy, >to allow (at least some) logged in users to edit through blocked proxies, >will pass by then. > > > Having just spent a couple of evenings dealing with a Tor-using vandal, I would personally immediately suspect any account using Tor of sock-puppetry simply due to guilt by association. Secrecy and anonymity are laudable, but since their primary visible use is to engage in unethical and/or illegal behavior vis-a-vis Wikimedia projects they are immediately deserving of suspicion. For the same reason Wiki projects do not allow "public" accounts, there is no reason to use anonymizing techniques when editing. You may instantly and anonymously receive an account. Your IP will not be examined except in unusual circumstances, and then will be handled under a stringent privacy policy which protects your information even in the case of wrong doing. For these reasons, I would personally be in favour of blocking access, or at least editing, to all anonymizing services. Amgine

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Re: [Foundation-l] Privacy policy and editing anonymously notice.
by Chris Jenkinson 03 Nov '05

03 Nov '05

> To make it even less scary, how about: > > :Unless you are [[Special:Userlogin|logged in]] your edit will be signed > with your [[IP address]] when you click 'Save'. See our > [[Wikipedia:Privacy policy|privacy policy]]. > > Having an edit be signed with your IP number is IMO less threatening > than saying we'll show your IP number publically, more of a way of > granting attribution for the contributor's fine work than a warning that > "we're watching you!". This version does unfortunately omit the point > that Wikipedia records the IP address of logged-in users too, but it's > not like we can compress every detail of the privacy policy down into > just two lines and it should be pretty obvious to anyone who's thinking > about this sort of thing so hopefully not a major omission. The thing is, this is factually incorrect. Your IP address *will* be recorded and associated with your edits if you are signed in, and this omits the fact that if you are not logged in, it will be associated with your edits publically. This is the key point of adding this message - to warn people that their IP address will be made public if they edit without being logged in. Omit this, and you may as well not have the warning. Chris

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[Foundation-l] Proposal for New Wiki Project - WikiCharacter, a database of all fictional characters
by Joe Del Senno 03 Nov '05

03 Nov '05

Hello All- I am emailing the foundation list to propose a new wiki project. *Wikicharacter* will be a database of every character in every published work of fiction, ever. The database will contain pages for each character, with links to related characters. The page for each character will be in the form of a biography, consisting of a "history" gleaned completely from the published materials in which the character appeared. The database will cover books, films, television, video games, advertising, and theater. I have made a page with details of my proposal on Meta-Wiki: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiCharacter Please, if you are interested in this project, add your name to the proposed projects page, and either email me directly or respond to this message. I have thought about this project for a long time, and put it aside due to the difficulty involved in amassing such data. Only recently did I realize that Wiki will be an excellent way to bring it to life. I am excited about the possibilities. Thank you all for your consideration, and I'd appreciate any and all comments regarding the project. - Joseph Del Senno

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[Foundation-l] Hebrew Wikinews
by Angela 03 Nov '05

03 Nov '05

Following the launch of Russian Wikinews <http://ru.wikinews.org/> yesterday, the Hebrew edition has now been created, in accordance with requests at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikinews/Start_a_new_edition and the previous announcement on foundation-l. http://he.wikinews.org/ Angela.

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Wikimedia-l November 2005